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Lehigh English Department Graduate Student Blog

LSJ Conference Round 4!

Get excited for the 4th Annual LSJ Conference happening this weekend (March 2-3)! If you don’t already have this marked down on your calendars, you should do so ASAP. The LSJ committee has been hard at work prepping for this conference, and we are stoked to hear from different graduate students, independent scholars, public humanists, and educators about the role of literature, and the arts and humanities in addressing inequality and building just communities.

This year’s theme of “Literature and Intersectionality” engages the influence of intersectionality and critical race theory on literary criticism, pedagogy, and contemporary movements for social and political change. Some of the cool panels we have lined up include presenters addressing topics such as ecofeminism, queer sass, public resistance, and pop culture productions like Beyonce’s Lemonade! Our very own Sarah HB will also be hosting a restorative justice workshop at the conference that aims to build white allyship in combatting racism. Check out the full schedule here.

For this year’s keynote, we have invited Dr. David E. Kirkland, the Executive Director of The NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and The Transformation of Schools. His presentation aims to raise awareness regarding the effects of educational injustices in the lives of urban youth of color to interrupt cycles of miseducation. By focusing on the (mis)education of Black males, the presentation will address questions regarding the influence of cycles of racial inequity on this group’s learning, and the role of educators in disrupting such cycles to empower urban youth. In addressing these questions, the presentation aims to more holistically examine the peculiar deficits of literacy education, exploring instead the possibilities offered by the spoken and written word for learning and liberation.

You can visit our very profesh website designed by Adam and myself (technically, I can only claim 20% of design credit). Registration is a cinch and free for Lehigh students. And if you’re still debating whether to attend, perhaps food might persuade you — we may or may not have sushi and wine…